1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an integrated inventory management system and, more particularly, to a computer-implemented vehicle part inventory management system that fills at least some vehicle part orders by a vehicle dealer from the inventory of another vehicle dealer.
2. Discussion
Research performed by vehicle manufactures has shown that vehicle dealers have generally exercised inadequate or inconsistent inventory control practices. These practices have frequently resulted in poor vehicle parts availability, excessive field obsolescence and ineffective inventory investment. In addition, the inconsistency with which the vehicle dealers conducted their parts business also fed back though the supply chain and adversely affected the efficiency and responsiveness of the vehicle parts suppliers.
In order to reduce and/or eliminate these impacts, vehicle manufactures determined that there was a need to gain system-wide vehicle parts inventory “visibility” for the vehicle manufactures and their dealers. Thus, an integrated vehicle part inventory management system was developed to meet this need. The integrated inventory management system includes a parts locator feature, an automated dealer-to-dealer referral feature, a suggested stock order feature, a suggested material return feature, and some improved reporting features. In this way, the vehicle manufactures expected to reduce vehicle dealer inventories with increased parts mix, improve part fill rates, reduce field obsolescence and improve overall performance throughout the supply chain.
As is well known, a conventional parts ordering system may be used to track and fill vehicle part orders received from vehicle dealers. When the parts supplier is unable to fill a part order on a timely basis, the part order receives a backorder status and the vehicle dealer is left to wait until the order is filled by the parts supplier. In order to reduce the number of backorders, dealer-to-dealer referral programs have been incorporated into some inventory management systems.
In at least one known system, backorder information is extracted on a nightly basis from the parts ordering system. Using the backorder information, the system creates a list of vehicle dealers who have the ordered parts, and then automatically queries each of these vehicle dealers on behalf of the requesting dealer. In order to update the parts ordering system, the system also generates an output file that indicates which orders have been filled through the referral process. On a nightly basis, the output file is then used to update the status of the ordered parts in the parts ordering system.
Unfortunately, this process allows for double shipment of a backordered part. During the course of a given day, it is conceivable that a backorder may be filled and shipped to a requesting dealer prior to the nightly update of the parts ordering system. In this way, a backordered part may inadvertently be shipped by the parts supplier as well as shipped by a supplying dealer.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an integrated inventory management system that fills vehicle part orders from the inventory of another vehicle dealer as well as updates in real-time the order status for the vehicle part in the parts ordering system. It is also desirable that the system check the order status prior to communicating a request to supply the vehicle part to a vehicle dealer.